Renault technical director Nick Chester says he is “comfortable” with the team’s pace during pre-season testing.
Ahead of a year when the French manufacturer is hoping to at least solidify their place at the head of the midfield, expectations were raised with claims of this winter being their most successful in terms of gains both in chassis and engine.
However, once on track with their rivals, the lap times have been pretty muted with their drivers suggesting it is not certain Renault will start the year as the fourth best team.
“We know we were slow speed trap-wise [in the] first week, particularly seeing as we didn’t use DRS much,” he noted, with Daniel Ricciardo suffering a DRS failure on the second day.
“This week we’ve been climbing up the speed traps, I think the speeds today were a bit more sensible so, I’m not too worried. We know where we’re running on rear wing, and we know what we’re doing with our programme.
“We’re reasonably comfortable,” he concluded.
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Renault-powered drivers have also reported feeling greater power from the engine, backing up the hype around the launch.
“Everything we actually developed and measured on the dyno was the same as what we see out on the track,” said engine chief Remi Taffin.
“It was quite similar the last few years, but this year it is again where we are. I think we hit our targets as far as we can say. We’re happy with what we have achieved.”
When asked by Motorsport.com, however, if those targets were high enough, Taffin continued: “We have set some high targets for this year, which we hit.
“But obviously it’s the same thing; we need to go out on track and see where we will be, and we will have to wait until Melbourne to see that in qualifying and the race.”
